UCL Rated #1 for Research in Psychology, Psychiatry and Neuroscience

22 December 2014

The outcome of the Government’s 6-year evaluation of
research in UK universities, which forms the basis for its distribution of £1.6
billion per annum, has been published and shows UCL as the top-ranked
university for research in Psychology, Psychiatry and Neuroscience as well as the
2nd ranked institution across all subjects.

The Research Excellence Framework (REF) judges 51% of UCL’s
research in Psychology, Psychiatry and Neuroscience as world-leading (4*) and
32% as internationally excellent (3*). UCL’s research environment achieved the
maximum possible score, 100% at 4*.

The submission also included 28 case studies of the impact
of our research, and 73% of these were rated world-leading. Impact cases
covered diverse research applications such as programmes for helping people to
stop smoking, a new drug treatment for multiple sclerosis, computer software
for analysing brain imaging data, and stem-cell based transplants for deafness.

No.
staff submitted

4*

3*

2*

1*

4*/3*
x no. staff submitted

1

University College London

287

51

32

14

2

238

2

King's College London

239

47

41

11

1

210

3

University of Edinburgh

117

49

38

12

1

102

4

University of Oxford

98

67

28

5

0

93

5

University of Cambridge

76

58

35

7

0

71

6

Cardiff University

69

60

32

8

0

64

7

University of Manchester

68

42

41

15

2

56

8

University of Bristol

69

43

37

18

1

55

9

Newcastle University

52

51

36

12

1

45

10

University of Nottingham

53

38

44

17

1

44

UCL also tops the league table for Psychology, Psychiatry
and Neuroscience when it is based on average quality or ‘grade point average’
(GPA). Unlike UCL, many universities omitted a large proportion of their eligible
staff from the evaluation, but this can be factored in by multiplying GPA by
the proportion of eligible staff submitted:

No.
staff submitted

GPA

Proportion
of eligible staff submitted

GPA
x Prop staff submitted

1

University College London

287

3.30

92

3.05

2

University of Glasgow

34

3.21

95

3.05

3

Goldsmiths' College

33

2.98

100

2.98

4

King's College London

239

3.34

89

2.98

5

Birkbeck College

28

3.45

86

2.96

6

University of Birmingham

41

3.41

87

2.96

7

University of Cambridge

76

3.51

83

2.90

8

University of Edinburgh

117

3.35

86

2.87

9

Queen's University Belfast

25

2.99

96

2.86

10

Imperial College London

44

3.41

84

2.85

“Warmest congratulations to all staff in the Faculty of
Brain Sciences for these REF results which highlight the outstanding research
conducted at UCL over the past 6 years.”

Prof Alan Thompson, Dean of UCL’s Faculty of Brain Sciences

“These excellent results confirm UCL’s position as the top
centre in the UK for research in Psychology, Psychiatry, and Neuroscience. We
are particularly pleased to see recognition of the scale and significance of
the impact of our research in healthcare, business and policy-making. The top
score for our research environment acknowledges the wealth of equipment and
clinical populations we have access to, the impact of the new faculty structure
and the major contribution made by students to the research culture. From the
moment they arrive students at all levels, both undergraduate and graduate,
become actively engaged in cutting-edge research.”

Prof David Shanks, Head of UCL’s Division of Psychology and
Language Sciences.